By: Alex Bustillo @txsportsblog
Fans from both teams were enjoying the perfect baseball weather at Dr. Pepper Ballpark prior to the highly anticipated March 6th afternoon matchup between the Dallas Baptist Patriots (7-2) and the Arizona Wildcats (8-2). The Wildcats offense is hotter than a Texas summer. Arizona scored a combined 32 runs in their commanding two game sweep of the Oklahoma Sooners. DBU was coming off their sweep of Missouri and an 8-0 victory the night before with a dominant pitching performance from Dominic Hamel.
DBU Head coach Dan Heefner hoped to get a similar performance from lefty redshirt junior Jared Pettitte to cool down the Wildcat bats. Arizona would send Garrett Irvin to the mound to try to continue their winning ways in Frisco. Neither starter would fare very well. If you like offense, this 4 hour and 55 minute game was just what Dr. Pepper ordered for you.
Patriots lefty Jared Pettitte hit the first batter he faced and walked the next three Wildcats to walk in a run before he was pulled for Chandler Arnold before recording an out. All batters that Pettitte put on would score in the inning on just 1 hit and the Wildcats jumped out to an early 4-0 lead. DBU would answer in the top of the 2nd inning and get one run back. Ryan Wrobleski delivered an RBI single to center and drove in Andrew Benefield who had walked and reached second on a balk.
Arizona pulled their starter Garrett Irvin in the 4th after an error and a walk that had DBU threatening with two runners on and no one out. Dawson Netz would replace Irvin and escape the inning allowing just one run. The Wildcats held a 5-2 lead in the 5th inning when Netz got into trouble after allowing a single and double and was replaced by Ian Churchill. That brought Andres Sosa to the plate with 2 outs and two runners on trailing by 3. Sosa had been struggling in the Classic and had struck out his last at bat. Churchill fell behind in the count 1-0 and then left a pitch out over the plate which Sosa crushed over the scoreboard in left field to tie the game at 5.
The Patriots would take a 7-5 lead in the top of the 6th and had momentum on their side after holding the Wildcats scoreless for 3 innings. Chas Sagedahl, who had come in for Arnold with two outs in the 4th, gave up a one out double to Ryan Holgate, a single to Blake Paugh and an RBI single to Branden Boissiere which cut the DBU lead to 7-6. That would be the end of Chas' day and Zach Heaton would relieve Sagedahl. The Wildcats offense came to life scoring 7 runs on 7 hits in the 6th and taking advantage of the Jackson Glenn throwing error to put the game away.
Arizona would add 3 more in the 8th to hand Dallas Baptist their first loss of the weekend 15-8. The Wildcats finished with 13 hits, 5 of them for extra bases and drew 11 walks. Arizona improved to 9-2 and DBU fell to 7-3 with the loss. Dallas Baptist looks to rebound against the Oklahoma Sooners on Sunday March 7th at 6pm. The Sooners defeated the Missouri Tigers 16-6 to wrap up Day 3 of the Frisco Classic. Missouri will have the daunting task of slowing down the Wildcat offense at noon March 7th.
Texas Sports Blog will be tweeting live throughout the DBU v OU game at 6pm March 7th. Follow for continuing coverage.
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